70 CEJerusalem
1,956 years ago
70–96 CE, Rome and its world. 20 posts and events, oldest first.
, Jerusalem
After a five-month siege, Vespasian's son Titus storms Jerusalem. The Temple burns, and the city is pulled down.
Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple
Background: Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), Wikipedia (opens en.wikipedia.org)
On the famine in besieged Jerusalem
What was going on: Jerusalem, 70 CE, during the Roman siege that ended with Titus taking the city. Josephus writes that all hope of escape was gone and famine was killing whole families. The dead lay in the lanes, and the living were too weak or too afraid to bury them.
Why it matters: The city's fall effectively ended the revolt and marked a turning point in Jewish history: with sacrifice no longer possible, Judaism gradually reoriented around Torah study and prayer.
No one mourned or complained. Hunger numbed every feeling: the dying stared dry-eyed at the dead. A deep silence, like a deadly night, lay over the city.
Nor was there any lamentations made under these calamities, nor were heard any mournful complaints; but the famine confounded all natural passions; for those who were just going to die looked upon those that were gone to rest before them with dry eyes and open mouths. A deep silence also, and a kind of deadly night, had seized upon the city;
Titus orders the Temple fire out, per Josephus
What was going on: Jerusalem, 70 CE, at the end of a five-month siege. As Josephus tells it, fire has reached the Temple, and Titus, Vespasian's son, runs from his tent to stop it, his commanders and legions behind him. Josephus calls him Caesar.
Why it matters: Painting the scene in 1638, Nicolas Poussin drew on Josephus and showed Titus not as a triumphant conqueror but as a conflicted figure, distressed by the ruin of the Temple.
Caesar shouted and signalled with his hand for the soldiers to put out the fire. But louder noise drowned him out and they did not hear.
Then did Caesar, both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice, and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them to quench the fire. But they did not hear what he said, though he spake so loud, having their ears already dimmed by a greater noise another way;
On the burning of the Temple
What was going on: Jerusalem, 70 CE. After a five-month siege, Titus' army has stormed the city and the Temple is burning. Josephus describes the plundering and the killing of people of every age while it burned.
Why it matters: The city's fall effectively ended the revolt and marked a turning point in Jewish history: with sacrifice no longer possible, Judaism gradually reoriented around Torah study and prayer.
The flames reached far and echoed with the groans of the dying. The hill was high and the buildings huge, so it looked like the whole city was burning.
The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and the works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole city had been on fire.
Mourns the Temple
What was going on: Jerusalem, 70 CE. Titus' army has stormed the city, and in Josephus' telling a soldier sets fire to the Temple although Titus had rushed out to stop his men. Josephus mourns the building.
Why it matters: In Judaism the destruction of the Second Temple is commemorated on Tisha B'Av, a major fast day.
Anyone would be right to mourn it, the most wonderful building we ever saw or heard of, rich and holy. Yet one can take comfort that fate decreed it, and fate cannot be escaped.
Now although any one would justly lament the destruction of such a work as this was, since it was the most admirable of all the works that we have seen or heard of, both for its curious structure and its magnitude, and also for the vast wealth bestowed upon it, as well as for the glorious reputation it had for its holiness; yet might such a one comfort himself with this thought, that it was fate that decreed it so to be, which is inevitable,
What was going on: Rome, 71 CE, the year after Titus took Jerusalem. Josephus describes the huge floats carried in a procession, three or four storeys high, hung with gold and ivory, showing scenes from the war.
Why it matters: The Arch of Titus, still standing in Rome, has reliefs of soldiers parading the seven-branched menorah, the Table of Showbread, a golden cup and silver trumpets during the triumphal procession.
On display: a happy land laid waste, whole ranks of enemies killed, some fleeing, some taken captive, and great high walls smashed by siege machines.
For there was to be seen a happy country laid waste, and entire squadrons of enemies slain; while some of them ran away, and some were carried into captivity; with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown and ruined by machines;
, Masada
Rome builds a ramp to the desert fortress of Masada. Josephus says the defenders killed one another rather than be taken, and counts the dead.
Those others were nine hundred and sixty in number, the women and children being withal included in that computation.
Background: Siege of Masada, Wikipedia (opens en.wikipedia.org)
What was going on: Rome, c. 71-75 CE, after the triumphs. Vespasian builds a Temple of Peace, finished fast, Josephus says, and fills it with pictures, statues and rare treasures. In 70 CE Titus had taken Jerusalem and its Temple had burned.
Why it matters: The treasures did not stay in Rome: Procopius records that the Vandal king Gaiseric took them to Carthage after sacking Rome in 455, and that they were paraded in Constantinople in 534.
He put the gold vessels and tools taken from the Jewish temple there as trophies. But their Law and the purple curtains of the holy place he had kept in the palace.
…he also laid up therein those golden vessels and instruments that were taken out of the Jewish temple, as ensigns of his glory. But still he gave order that they should lay up their Law, and the purple veils of the holy place, in the royal palace itself, and keep them there.
What was going on: Masada, around 73–74 CE; its fall ended the revolt. Josephus writes that the defenders' wall had burned down, and that Eleazar gathered his bravest companions and urged that all of them be slain rather than be taken. This opens his speech.
Why it matters: In modern Israel, the defenders' choice of death over slavery came to symbolize the courage of the warriors of Masada.
Friends, long ago we resolved to serve no one, not the Romans, only God, the one true Lord. Now the time has come to live up to that.
Since we, long ago, my generous friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice.
What was going on: Masada, 73 or 74 CE, the last stronghold of the Jewish revolt, with a Roman ramp built up to it. Josephus writes that Eleazar gathered the bravest defenders and urged them to die rather than be taken. The speech is as Josephus writes it.
Why it matters: Retold in modern times as the Masada myth, the siege became a national symbol in the early years of the State of Israel.
We were the first to rebel against them and are the last still fighting. I count it God's gift that we can still die bravely and free, unlike others caught off guard.
We were the very first that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God hath granted us, that it is still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly.
What was going on: Masada, 73 or 74 CE, the end of the Jewish revolt. The Romans broke in and could not tell what had happened, until women hiding underground came out and told them: the defenders had killed one another rather than be taken. At first the Romans did not believe it.
Why it matters: Josephus is the only writer of the time to record the siege. In modern times it was retold as the Masada myth, a selective narrative based on his account, which became a national symbol in Israel's early years.
Inside they found the many dead and took no joy in it, though these were their enemies. They could only marvel at how firmly so many had faced death.
…they came within the palace, and so met with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown,
Introduces himself
What was going on: Josephus introduces himself at the start of his history of the Jewish war against Rome, written in the 70s CE. He says he first wrote it in his own language and is now putting it into Greek for people living under Roman rule.
Why it matters: The work Josephus opens here is the only extensive eyewitness account of the revolt to survive from antiquity, and a foundational source for the late Second Temple period.
I, Joseph son of Matthias, a Hebrew and a priest, fought the Romans at first, and was then forced to watch what happened after.
Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work].
On grieving for Jerusalem
What was going on: In his history of the war, Josephus asks readers to forgive his grief, because Jerusalem, once among the happiest cities under Roman rule, fell into terrible disaster, brought on by its own people rather than foreigners.
If you still blame me, take the facts as the history, and the grieving as mine alone.
But if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only.
, Pompeii
Mount Vesuvius erupts in the first year of Titus' reign and buries Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash.
There happened in his reign some dreadful accidents; an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in Campania, and a fire in Rome, which continued during three days and three nights
Background: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, Wikipedia (opens en.wikipedia.org)
, Rome
The great amphitheatre begun by Vespasian is finished and dedicated by his son Titus with games. Suetonius does not give the year.
Having dedicated his amphitheatre, and built some warm baths close by it with great expedition, he entertained the people with most magnificent spectacles.
, Caledonia
The governor Agricola marches into what is now Scotland and wins a battle in the north. Tacitus was his son-in-law.
as far as the Grampian mountains, which the enemy had already occupied
Background: Battle of Mons Graupius, Wikipedia (opens en.wikipedia.org)
On freedom, as Tacitus wrote it
What was going on: As Tacitus tells it, before the battle of Mons Graupius, around 83 CE, the Britons have united, more than 30,000 armed men, against Agricola's Roman army. Tacitus, Agricola's son-in-law, gives this speech to Calgacus, one of their leaders; the words are Tacitus' own composition.
Why it matters: Agricola's campaign effectively brought what is now Scotland under Roman control, but only briefly: within a few years Rome had pulled back and abandoned most of Caledonia.
When I think about why we are fighting and where we stand, I am sure today, and you standing together, will begin freedom for all of Britain.
Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence that this day, and this union of yours, will be the beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain.
On Roman peace, as Tacitus wrote it
What was going on: Caledonia, about 83 CE, before the battle of Mons Graupius against the governor Agricola's army. Tacitus, Agricola's son-in-law, gives Calgacus this speech to his side; the words are Tacitus' own, as ancient historians' speeches often were.
Why it matters: Calgacus' speech is often quoted as: they make a desert and call it peace.
They rob the whole world. Rich or poor, nothing satisfies them. They call theft and killing an empire; they make a wasteland and call it peace.
Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace.
On slavery, as Tacitus wrote it
What was going on: Caledonia, about 83 CE, before Agricola's Romans fight the Caledonians at Mons Graupius. Tacitus wrote this speech himself and gave it to Calgacus. In it Calgacus says the Romans take Britain's children, harvests and labour.
Why it matters: Agricola's campaign effectively brought what is now Scotland under Roman control, but only briefly: within a few years Rome had pulled back and abandoned most of Caledonia.
A slave is sold once and fed by his owner. Britain pays for and feeds its own slavery every day.
Creatures born to slavery are sold once for all, and are, moreover, fed by their masters; but Britain is daily purchasing, is daily feeding, her own enslaved people.
On fear and hate, as Tacitus wrote it
What was going on: Caledonia, about 83 CE, before the battle of Mons Graupius in what is now Scotland, which the governor Agricola won. Calgacus speaks to his own side, but Tacitus, Agricola's son-in-law, composed the speech himself.
Why it matters: Agricola's campaign effectively brought what is now Scotland under Roman control, but only briefly: within a few years Rome had pulled back and abandoned most of Caledonia.
Fear holds them together, and fear is a weak glue. Take it away, and people who stop being afraid start to hate.
Fear and terror there certainly are, feeble bonds of attachment; remove them, and those who have ceased to fear will begin to hate.
